I like dressing up, and I like making my own costumes. We were invited to a 1980s themed fancy dress party and having looked at my options I decided that I was going to be the Princess of Power! But then I found out that the birthday girl was going to be She-Ra, so I switched out to Tinkerbell.
Fortunately I could still use the same corset pattern, just adding a skirt part to it as part of the construction. This posed a few challenges, as did my choice of fabric, a shiny top-layer to the dress over poly-cotton and a cotton lining.
The shiny top-fabric was very challenging to work with, it split easily, and frayed badly. It also pulled threads very easily when sewing (I should probably have switched out to a sharper needle). I also had some trouble with the invisible zip, due to the splitty fabric. It worked out fine in the end though.
The New Look pattern was well written though, I knew exactly what it wanted me to do at each stage. Since this was my first time boning a corset I appreciated the detailed instructions. I traced off the corset patterns and then lengthened them all based on the waist-line to skirt length. I left the bottom of the skirt straight to begin with.
Once I'd sewn everything together, I drew a zig-zag hem on the bottom, sewed that, and then trimmed off the excess fabric so that the points could be pressed out.
One set of inexpensive wings and some sparkly shoes later, and viola!
Modifications
Other than lengthening the pattern pieces and then adding the zig-zag edging, the only major modification I made was that I did boning on the front center, front side, and side panels, and put the zip in the back. I understand why the pattern has it in the side though. I also ended up putting a dart in the top of both side panels so that the dress sat flush with my chest instead of sticking out. If I had made a muslin I would have known to reduce the side panels accordingly.
If I were to make it again
I don't like the shape of the front center piece, I'm not sure if it was my wonky sewing though! It seemed to bow upwards rather than running straight across.
I think I could make this pattern again quite happily, though I don't have a lot of call for wearing corsets these days! I might make the She-Ra version I was planning, as I could wear it to York Comicon next year.
